River Sweep to tackle Kiski by kayak

Evelyn Andritz, owner of River's Edge Canoe and Kayak, canoes the Kiski River near Leechburg on Tuesday, June 11, 2013.

Jason Bridge | Valley News Dispatch

Neill Andritz, owner of River's Edge Canoe and Kayak, canoes the Kiski River near Leechburg on Tuesday, June 11, 2013.

Jason Bridge | Valley News Dispatch

The Kiski River near Leechburg on Tuesday, June 11, 2013.

Jason Bridge | Valley News Dis

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, John Linkes, Roaring Run director; Dennis Hawley, president of the Crooked Creek Watershed; Betsy Mallison, the Pennsylvania River Sweep coordinator; and Evelyn and Neill Andritz, owners of River's Edge Canoe and Kayak in Gilpin, from left, formulate a plan for Riversweep on Friday, June 14, 2013, which will consist of volunteers gathering litter from the Kiski River between Vandergrift and Leechburg.

Where to volunteer

All river sweeps are from 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday.

Volunteers need not register and can just show up in the morning at one of the following sweep locations:

• Crooked Creek site at Rosston Boat Launch: Manor Township, take Route 66 to Ford City, turn onto Fifth Avenue (Route 128) and drive 1.8 miles. Bear left on Ross Avenue for 0.8-mile, turn right on Ross Center for 0.1-mile. Boat launch is on the right.

• Natrona, Harrison: From Route 28, take exit 15, Natrona Heights, turn right onto Burtner Road, then turn right at first stop sign on Spring Hill Road. At second stop sign, go straight to the traffic light and drive straight across and go down Spring Hill Road.

Go through another stop sign, at second stop sign, go across railroad tracks to River Avenue.

Go around the bend to the next stop sign and turn left onto Veterans’ Way, at Len’s Auto Body.

We are currently undergoing updates to our site and are working to improve your experience on all devices that you use throughout your day. If you should find a page or a story that is not working correctly, please click here.

Thank you for your patience,

TribLIVE.com Team

Volunteers will collect litter and debris along area riverbanks on Friday and Saturday for the annual River Sweep, which features a first-time cleanup along the Kiski River via kayak on Friday.

The local River Sweep is part of a six-state effort to remove litter and debris in the Ohio River watershed in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

Covering 2,400 miles of shoreline, it's the largest organized river cleanup in the country.

Volunteers are needed for a number of local cleanups on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon along the Kiski River, Cowanshannock Creek, Crooked Creek, Allegheny River and certain tributaries.

The cleanup by kayak will start between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. at the River's Edge Canoe and Kayak, 3158 River Road in Gilpin.

Owners Neill and Evelyn Andritz will provide the kayaks and life jackets for volunteers, who need only show up on Friday morning.

All river cleanups will be held on Saturday.

Volunteers don't need to register, but simply show up at one of the sites wearing sturdy boots and long pants.

“The No. 1 item we find is tires,” said John Linkes, environmental director of Roaring Run Watershed Association, which is in its 13th year of participating in the event.

River Sweep Coordinator Betsy Mallison said, “We have found enough parts for cars and household items over the last 22 years that we could build a whole car and a whole house.”

“This is a good opportunity to clean up the riverbanks,” said Dennis Hawley, president of Crooked Creek Watershed. “Year after year, we continue to find this stuff.”

Hawley and others said that if area counties and communities offered drop-off points for appliances, it might help cut down the illegal dumping of the larger household items.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.